In recent years, along with the progress of computer networks, various network devices have come into the market. In a network such as a LAN (Local Area Network) or the like, since a network device such as a printer or the like is normally set at a place physically separated from a computer, it is desired to manage the network device even from a remote place. As a protocol used in such management, a protocol called SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) is known.
SNMP is a protocol for managing networks such as a LAN and the like, and is prevalently used not only in networks based on TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol), but also in networks based on protocols other than TCP/IP.
Normally, in network management based on SNMP, the network is managed by accessing using SNMP an information database which is called an MIB (Management Information Base) and has a tree structure.
On the other hand, a directory service is provided as a method of efficiently finding and using various resources (printers, servers, scanners, and the like) on a network. The directory service is a telephone book associated with a network. As an example of the directory service, LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol) specified by RFC1777 and NDS (NetWare Directory Service) available from Novell, Inc. are known.
A conventional network device management system can search for network devices connected to the network, can display the states of network devices and various kinds of information set in the network devices, and can change those contents using SNMP/MIB or directory service. These kinds of information contain the product names of network devices, the names of network devices named by the user, network addresses such as MAC addresses and IP addresses, the locations of network devices, and the like.
A related art for reporting information associated with network devices to the user using an e-mail message will be examined below. According to this related art, if an error has occurred in a given network device, an e-mail message that describes the product name of that network device, the name on the network, the network address, location, and the like is delivered.
However, in the above related art, even when the user receives such e-mail message, he or she cannot intuitively recognize what kind of error has occurred.
It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for managing network devices, which can make the user intuitively recognize the current state of a network device in which an error has occurred.
In the present invention, for example, a Web technique is used to make the user intuitively recognize information. More specifically, the present invention provides a Web application that displays, on a Web browser of a PC, a list of network devices connected to the network, the states of the network devices, various kinds of information set in the network devices, and the like. In this way, the user can easily intuitively recognize practical information associated with an error or the like.
With the aforementioned related art, the user is informed of occurrence of an error using an e-mail message, and also of practical information associated with that error using a Web application separately. In such case, the user recognizes occurrence of an error by reading the e-mail message, and launches a Web browser and manually designates a predetermined URL address to recognize the current state of the network device. If the URL address is unpublicized, the user cannot access a site unless he or she is reminded of the URL address from an administrator or the like, thus posing a problem in terms of immediacy of information. Furthermore, such method is inconvenient for the user since many manual operations are required (e.g., the user must launch e-mail software, launch the Web browser, key-input the URL address, and so forth).
It is another object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for managing network devices, which can solve the above problem, and sends a message indicating that an error has occurred in a network device, and including a site on the network, which provides detailed information associated with the error.
In other words, the user can easily recognize the URL address by this message even if he or she does not know the URL address. Using a link function of the URL address, the user can easily access a providing site designated by that URL address by clicking the URL address on an e-mail message using a pointing device, thus facilitating user's operations.
Information that is associated with a network device, and that the user wants, is not only error information. In addition, various kinds of information are present. Also, errors have various categories. In such case, a providing sites of each information is preferably changed in correspondence with kinds of information or for each information.
It is still another object of the present invention to inform the user of different providing sites in correspondence with kinds of information.
The information providing site need not be limited to an external PC different from the network device.
It is, therefore, yet another object of the present invention to provide a network device, which includes a Web server and provides a function of displaying the state of the network device and various kinds of information set in the network device on a Web browser of a PC.